


Chances Taken

by Writerwithagoal



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Brot4-Lexi Eznzo Care Kat, Caroline is an Linguistic Anthropologist, F/M, Katherine Pierce is amazing, Klaus is trying to be normal..., Like they fucked at somepoint, Mentions of Past relationships between Katherine and Caroline, Old Caroline, Trying being key, Vampires, bromancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 21:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerwithagoal/pseuds/Writerwithagoal
Summary: Oxford University has stood for centuries, lets see how it handles Caroline Forbes. Returning home after 300 years, she's determined to write her paper, and get tenure. Which aren't as lofty goals as Kat, Lexi, and Enzo tell her she should have. Still they're her goals. Now if only Nik Mikaels from the Arts Faculty would just leave her the fuck alone.





	Chances Taken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brophigenia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brophigenia/gifts).



> Gift for Brophigenia for the Klaroline Sweet Swap Valentines Gift Giving.  
> I hope that you enjoy this, it was an absolute pleasure to write. I look forward to hearing your thoughts brophigenia.

** Best Vamp Gang Eva (Groupchat) **

 

**_KitKat has changed TDH to TDD_ **

**Carebear: I got the grant!**

**KitKat: Wait you’re finally moving back to the UK? I thought you loved Richmond.**

**Carebear: I do and I am, but I can’t continue my research on the linguistic changes of the English language just staying in America.**

**Bambi: Ooh does this mean we get to finally debut you into vampire society?**

**TDD: Nah luvs too peculiar about her friends to follow you two into a vampire soiree.**

**Carebear: I’m still in this group chat. I’m going to be to frantically working on my paper Kat, I don’t have time to be your fledgling simpering after you and your husband.**

**KitKat: You used to love simpering at me.**

**TDD: HEY! We agreed in 2006 no mentions of past dalliances with each other unless I get the full sordid details.**

**Bambi: Come on you two, you’re making Lorenzo jealous.**

**Carebear: He’s just grumpy because by the time he joined our girl gang we’d stopped having threeways with us plus men.**

**TDD: You lot are evil. Absolutely Evil. So when can we visit?**

**Carebear: No! No! No! I am not repeating the spring semester of ‘89, you will not be visiting me. I will visit you away from Oxford.**

**Bambi: Careful Care, you’ll hurt his feelings.**

**KitKat: But how else will we be able to primp and prime you for the older vampires.**

**Carebear: You’ll just have to get over it, oh, sire of my heart.**

**KitKat: There’s my only living protege putting work over fun. Where did Lex and I go wrong?**

**Carebear: You turned the daughter of a classics professor. I’ve spent the last two centuries studying language and the changes society has on it.**

**KitKat: BOOOORINNGGG**

**Bambi: You gotta break out of your shell at some point Care, you’re a vampire. It’s time to start living like one.**

**TDD: Kat, what does TDD mean?**

**KitKat: Oh that, a more accurate description Tall Dark and Dumb :***

**_TDD has changed KitKat to Kitty_ **

**_Kitty has changed TDD to Deadmeat_ **

**_Bambi has changed Kitty to KitKat and Deadmeat to TDH_ **

**_Carebear has changed the chat colors to seafoam._ **

 

Caroline sighed as she set her phone down and looked around her apartment of the last decade. She’d started working at the University of Richmond in 2009. Their anthropology department was finally building a linguistic track and Caroline had been able to get in at the ground floor. Through working her ass off and the added bonus that she was able to go days without sleep. She’d carved out an entire discipline at UR through hard work and compulsion where she needed it. 

It felt weird giving her sabbatical paperwork in to the department so that she could move to her hometown of Oxford, England. She hadn’t been back since her parents’ funerals in 1725. Somethings were bound to be different after all it had been almost three hundred years. Though she still owned the house that she’d grown up in, she’d paid contractors and a real estate agent to let the home in Old Marston since the 1980s. Before that, Katherine and Lorenzo would look in on the property when they were in Europe. The deed was technically in the name of what would have been her sixth granddaughter removed, Caroline Elizabeth Forbes. 

Looking around the brightly painted apartment that she’d made her home for the last decade she felt a wave of sadness envelope her. She’d made a home in Richmond and she’d make Oxford a home too, it would just take some time clearing the ghosts out of her family home. 

As she closed the last box of books, she’d actually gotten approval to study at Oxford’s Bodleian library three months earlier. After a lot of hemming and hawing, she’d told her three best friends. Katherine Pierce was the best sire a vampire could ask for. Though she expected absolute loyalty she also repaid that double. Caroline never doubted where they stood. She’d helped the brunette even decode a silly old curse; just so she could finally marry her long lost love. 

Lexi Branson was one of those people that you didn’t realize you’d become best friends with until it had been a decade and all you’d done was explore most of the colonies ‘discovered’ and not. They’d gotten on like bees and honey for the last two hundred and ninety-nine years. It had taken a couple decades for Katherine to warm up to Lexi but then she had been on the run. As it turned out, Lexi and Kat had run in the same circles in the 1600s, though neither truly got to know the other until Caroline came around in 1730. 

Lorenzo St. John had joined their motley group in 1892 when Caroline had saved him from being murdered by sailors in Charleston. Well technically they had murdered him but he didn’t stay dead. Caroline had a soft spot for fellow Brits. They’d gotten on immediately like they’d been friends forever. By far the youngest of the group, he was more prone to murder and mayhem like Katherine was than his sire. Which amused Lexi to no end. Of course Caroline’s only sireling in a hundred and sixty years would turn out like Kat. 

While they all had their differences, they were a family and that family stuck together through thick and thin. Caroline had been grateful to Kat for saving her that night before she was tried as a witch. That being said she knew she wasn’t as familiar with the vampire world as the other three, they liked the danger and intrigue that it presented. Caroline liked excelling at the politics of humans. Vampires added a second layer that made her anxious to be around. Being constantly on edge wasn’t her cup of tea.

Sitting in her boxed up home office, she sighed and pulled out her planner to look at her list. Move into her estate. Buy a new bike so her travels to and from the campus looked less suspicious. Hire a new maid to keep up the day-to-day things. If she paid well enough, she probably didn’t have to compel them. Her to-do lists were long and varied, she only had one month till the start of term and if she didn’t get out of her own way she’d never get there. 

Cracking her neck she checked off packing and picked up her purse. Flying private made moving so much easier on her as she moved through security smiling at the customs enforcement, grateful for Enzo for insisting that they all get European passports. Caroline had opted for British and was glad for it. Traveling on a British passport in Katherine’s private plane was deliriously bougies even for Caroline. 

 

“Ahh Doctor Forbes, how wonderful to see you, it’s so lovely that you’re here,” Doctor Clemmons said, walking over to Caroline as she entered the faculty mixer for the department. Caroline smiled, though she didn’t feel it reaching her eyes. She hated these types of  soirée s, they were dull and took time out of getting important things done. That being said, they did bring her face to face with the faculty members whose good sides she had to get on. 

Caroline Forbes had learned early on that compulsion worked great on some humans but not all, and to avoid problems with compulsion one must be as charming as possible all the time. Thankfully her mother had believed a proper lady was well versed in manners and decorum for any situation. Over the centuries, Caroline had found that her manners would often ingratiate her to people and organizations that she’d normally be excluded from. 

“Thank you Doctor Clemmons, I’m grateful for the board’s invitation to study as well as teach here at Oxford,” Caroline said, her hands clasped in front of her. Looking to the world, the picture perfect face of elegance and southern charm. She looked around the room as the older woman next to her talked about the many  _ young _ faculty members who were still single.

“I feel like this must have been kismet, your great-grandfather three times back was a member of faculty here at Oxford and almost three hundred years later here you are,” Clemmons said, bringing Caroline back into the present. Her mind had drifted off thinking about how little these halls had changed over the centuries. 

“My family was quite proud of the legacy my fa-erm-ancestor had here as a professor of classics. Though it is unfortunate that none of them lived long enough to see me bring the legacy back,” Caroline said, her smile again not quite reaching her eyes. Lying about her family was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. It made being immortal slightly less thrilling. 

“Well I’m sure your family would be quite proud of your legacy if they were alive to see you dedicate so much to the understanding of how language affects society and vice versa,” Dr. Clemmons said, absently patting Caroline’s arm as she led her around the room.

“I’m just hoping that I can prove my mettle, Oxford is nothing like Richmond,” Caroline said, frowning and wincing at Dr. Diana Clemmons. Who of course took the bait immediately. Patting her hand she turned them around to face the department. People mingling around left and right. 

“Oh you will be loved. I can see it now, the first Doctor Forbes, to grace our hallowed halls in over two hundred years,” Diana insisted, as she pulled the amicable vampire along. Caroline nodded absently as she allowed her heightened senses to take in the crowded room. Conversations on the American anthropologist spread like wildfire as they stopped and introduced her to various faculty members of her new department. As well as some from other  departments. 

“Oh Dr. Mikaels, what a pleasure to see you,” Doctor Clemmons said, spinning them both round quickly. Without her vampire speed Caroline was sure she’d have fallen on her ass right there. Standing behind them was a gentleman who looked for all the world as though he was only a few years older than Caroline herself. As she listened both to the conversation and his vitals she heard no tell tale that he wasn’t human. Though he did smell mildly of wet dog and old parchment it was inconclusive evidence he wasn’t human. 

“Dr. Clemmons, where else would I be? Your faculty parties are legendary even among us lowly artists,” Dr. Mikaels said, though his eyes were focused on Caroline. “Who is your companion?”

“You flatter young man, and this is the newest star in the Anthropology department, Doctor Caroline Forbes; the youngest tenured professor at the University of Richmond and the youngest linguistic anthropologist in recent memory,” Diana Clemmons rattled, off her accomplishments. Caroline held out her hand to shake and was startled when he leaned forward to kiss the top of her hand. Pulling back she could have sworn his eyes flashed gold. 

“An American? Welcome to Oxford. I’m sure the weather is not what someone from Virginia is used too,” said the gentleman, though Caroline was beginning to doubt that title.

“I was born in Virginia, where we do get all four seasons, Dr Mikaels, you might take a visit. I’m sure you’d like it,” Caroline replied, pulling her hand out of his grip. Something about the art professor made her monster start prowling under her skin. Tightening her control, she offered him a pleasant smile. 

“Oh I see a colleague, I’ll just leave the two of you to talk. Nik, I expect you to show our newest member a good time,” Dr. Clemmons said absentmindedly, before walking off towards the other end of the room. Caroline barely repressed a scowl as the older woman walked away. 

“So how are you finding England?” Nik asked, looking over at the blonde vampire who had yet to react to him. How did a vampire as old as she obviously was, not know him? If anything she seemed miffed to have been left with him.

“Hmm oh, England is lovely. Plenty of little book shops, and places to visit. I’ve never been here  recently , I spent most of my time doing research in post British-colonies,” she said, sipping her wine and glancing up at him. “So you’re an artist?” 

“Doctorate in Fine Arts and Art History actually,” Nik said, grabbing a glass of wine off of a passing tray, looking down at the blonde vampire. He’d estimate she was about three-four hundred years though how she’d escaped his notice until now was rather remarkable. “So did you always want to be an anthropologist?”

“I find the study of society and peoples through their use of language and the change of languages over time fascinating.” Caroline shrugged, looking around the room of esteemed and older faculty mentally mapping who would be easiest to sway with her credentials and her charm. As well as who would need an additional bump of compulsion. 

“I’ve never really thought of language as a changing entity,” Nik said, growing annoyed that she was barely paying him any mind. Him, the most powerful and dangerous being in existence. 

“Well if you ask any language major, they don’t. While a linguist and linguistic anthropologists would be the first to argue that they do, how else would we communicate through adaptations and changes in society,” she said, shifting her attention back to the man to her right. 

Her mother, Lexi, Kat and life itself, had taught Caroline well the notion that the most innocent veneer could hide a hideous monster. Though he seemed harmless enough, her monster was on high alert, which rarely happened to her. She who filled her life with academics, historians, and tomes. “The way language is taught, for instance, changes based on location, and time away from the origin of the language affects dialect and how people are perceived when speaking.” 

“You have a unique perspective on language Doctor Forbes, I’d love to pick your brain on the subject in a more private setting, if you have the time,” Nik said, turning to look directly at the woman before him. Her eyes were bright as she talked about the impact of colonization on how language spread. She looked passionate and alive. More alive than any other vampire he’d met in over his thousand years. 

“I’m not sure that’ll be possible Dr Mikaels, I’m very busy and I haven’t quite gotten my footing here in Oxford,” she said slowly, turning quietly to keep him always in her peripheral. While she couldn’t quite place him, something about him screamed dangerous.

Looking up into his eyes they suddenly seemed far to old for his young face. Angering someone dangerous enough to have her own monster raising its hackles was bad sense. Steeling herself she pulled her phone from her clutch. Her instincts hadn’t ever steered her wrong before. “Here though, take my number and we can maybe set up a time later in the semester.” 

Klaus raised his eyebrow at the about face the woman had just done. He’d only ever gotten such change in opinion from using compulsion or threats. Maybe the woman before him knew more than she was saying. She had excellent control. Most vampires, no matter their age, struggled in rooms filled with humans. Yet here she looked perfectly at ease. Taking the offered phone he quickly texted his. His interest suddenly piqued far more than he’d originally thought. “I will wait for your text Dr. Forbes.” 

Taking her phone back, she turned on her heel moving through the crowd, putting space between them. Caroline walked out of the room, waving silently as a few professors in her new department noticed her. Smiling, she slipped out of the door and down the stone archway. Once she was clear of human eyes she traced to her home. Closing the door and reapplying the wards that Lex had mailed her, she picked up a book on the use of grammar from the 1600s off her table. Hopefully Dr. Mikaels would be satisfied with that small olive branch and leave her alone. Plucking a blood bag from her fridge she sat down at her kitchen table. 

Cracking her neck, she drained her blood bag and winced. Now that she was settled she could stock up on O+ which was her favorite. AB always had a weird aftertaste. Checking the faculty mixer off her to-do list, she tugged on the cord of her desk lamp. Opening the book and then her laptop she dug in. Her research wouldn’t write itself after all. 

 

Niklaus Mikaelson, the oldest hybrid in the world, stood in the faculty filled conference hall at  _ his _ University. Not only had she not known him, as his position within the Supernatural community dictated, but she hadn’t been eager to press him about his art or his specialty. What an odd little vampire and woman. After clearing the room of spies he’d honestly been ready to leave, he had a few pieces he was working on that he wanted to finish. 

He’d noticed her from across the room, the picture of grace and poise. Listening to Diana Clemmon’s incessant chattering like it was fascinating information, rather than the boring benign drivel that it was. She had glanced at him with fleeting interest at their introduction and then nothing. Her entire demeanor left him unsure of what she thought of him. Her heart beat had barely changed as though she was long schooled in masking her feelings. 

Glaring as a graduate assistant walked up to him, he flashed his fangs and traced out of the hall. He knew a mass murder at the faculty gathering wouldn’t look good. Not since he was supposed to be keeping a low profile and trying to be normal. Normal, why was he doing this again? Oh, to prove a point. A point which was growing more and more tedious. 

Flashing to his manor he pulled out his phone and dialed Elijah. Though it had been some years since they’d last spoken, he knew that if anyone was going to know of a Doctor Forbes, vampire anthropologist, it was his know-it-all older brother. Unless the Petrova bitch had him so distracted he wasn’t paying attention to his own spies.

“Hello brother, to what do I owe the call?” Elijah’s voice came through loud and clear.

“‘Lijah, do you know a Doctor Caroline Forbes? I just ran into her and she didn’t know who I am,” Klaus said, pouring himself a glass of blood laced wine. 

“Caroline Forbes,” Elijah repeated slowly. Katerina’s head whipped around, her eyes narrowing at him. “No I’ve never heard of her, Oxford is the best university in the western world though Nik, maybe she’s just young.”

“She’s at least three hundred years old, she’s too pretty to have been sired by Bekah, and Kol’s been in Europe for the last five hundred years,” Klaus snarled, pacing as he moved around the room. 

“Well maybe one of our millions of underlings sired her and she simply has been boring enough to avoid us,” Elijah said, raising an eyebrow at his wife of a hundred and fifty years. 

“Maybe you’re right brother,” Klaus sighed, Elijah’s explanation made sense to him. Loathe as he was to admit it, some vampires preferred the ambiguity of humanity to live in. Refilling his empty glass he heard a female voice and his anger rose again. “Are you still seeing the whore?”

“Nik please do not speak about my wife like that, she did after all put the pieces together on how to break your curse and make more hybrids,” Elijah snapped, rolling his eyes as Katerina started to unbutton his suit shirt while leaning up to breathe into the phone.

“We’re still on our honeymoon Klaus don’t be a prick,” she hissed before ending the call. Elijah pulled away and threw his phone in the same direction she’d tossed his suit jacket earlier. 

“One day you two are going to have to get on,” he murmured, running his hands down her back to her arse and pulling her close. 

“Hmm one day I may forgive him for sending me on the run and out of your bed for three centuries,” Kat whispered, interlocking her wrists around his neck. First love making, then call Caroline. The blonde vampire could handle herself till then.

 

Klaus couldn’t relax, restlessness plagued him. Painting in the Italian mountains and feeding on village people had been so 1900s. Teaching art to people who were interested in it was new if not also immensely frustrating. Sitting in his studio, brush in one hand and a tumbler of whiskey in the other, he snarled. Just as his anger got the best of him and he threw the tumbler, he finished the three century old whiskey and dropped his brush in the cup of water. Before he ruined his hard work, he stalked out of his one place of solace. 

He was working on a series of abstract pieces that he’d decided would be a pleasant distraction from the papers he should be grading. Also since he’d compelled himself a doctorate back in the 1980s he figured he should do some of the work that went into having such an advanced degree. Painting like this was also challenge. Klaus was quite proud of his landscapes and portraits of various women that speckled galleries around the world. In almost a thousand years he’d never really tried abstract art. 

Snarling, he traced out into the city, a few murders here and there wouldn’t be amiss. As he stalked through the dark alleys, and side streets of Oxford he followed the sound of fast paced heart beats. Rounding a corner his lips curled as he spotted two humans rutting against the side of a building. The beat from inside implied a music hall. Flashing forward he tapped the gentleman on the shoulder. 

“Sorry to interrupt but I am famished,” he growled, as his fangs descended and he ripped into the boy. As he drank no more than a few gulps he stared at the woman. She was frozen, her heartbeat growing faster in his ears. Dropping the man, he stepped back his eyes brilliant and gold. “Run.”

Laughing, he watched as she stumbled her skirt falling back down now that the gentleman wasn’t holding it up. Stepping over the body of...someone, he walked slowly after the screaming redhead. As the voices of concerned persons unknown rose in volume he traced over to his prey. “Not fast enough.”

Dropping her cold body, he wiped his hand over his mouth. Looking around, he spotted a flower shop. Maybe the Doctor liked flowers. Shaking his head, he scowled and leaned down to rip the head from his victim. Reckless murderer he absolutely was; ripper though he was not. Throwing it over a few buildings would confuse everyone for awhile. Flashing off into the night, he tried to get the color of the blonde woman’s eyes from his memory. 

 

“Caroline, are you absolutely sure you haven’t met anyone named Klaus?” Kat’s voice came through her earbuds as she biked around the original city center. The north part of the city was cordoned off and police were shepherding people away. Still old Oxford had changed a lot since her childhood. 

“Eidetic memory remember Kat,” Caroline huffed, turning down the alley near her rooms. 

“Right but he could be using an alias,” Kat snapped, and Caroline could swear she heard the sounds of water running. 

“Are you in the bathroom?” Caroline asked, her lips curling at the thought of her sire taking a break from the nonstop honeymoon to check up on her. 

“No Elijah’s taking a shower before we go to the theatre,” Kat said, flicking her mascara wand over her eyelashes. 

“Right, well I have groceries to put away so talk soon,” Caroline said before pressing the microphone button. Locking her bike up to the rack, she rolled her neck and stretched as she looked around the courtyard. Picking up her grocer bags, she flashed into the house.. 

While vampires didn’t  _ need _ to eat, it gave a comfort of moments no longer attainable. Every mug of tea, for instance, brought memories of her mother to the forefront of her mind. Conversations about local gossip, governess postings, or marriages suitable for the daughter of a respected classics professor. The gentle reassurance that she was loved, just from the extra dollop of honey in her mug. 

Being in her family home still felt surreal. She’d left Oxford three months after the robbery that had taken her parents from her. Inheritance had been easy. Being an only child she’d had no siblings, or even male cousins to claim her father’s house as theirs. With the money they’d left her she’d shuttered the house and bought passage on a ship bound for the colonies. 

Even now, as she placed her groceries away in the fridge, and pantry. She kept expecting her mother to walk in talking about the Gilberts, Lockwoods or Donovans. Caroline would swear right and left she could smell the faint hint of tobacco in the study from her father’s pipe. Logically she knew neither of these things were possible, but that didn’t stop it from happening. It didn’t stop the baited breath as she stood alone in the kitchen, or the stolen breath when light hit the window just right. No, being home wasn’t the calming presence that she’d hoped for. It wasn’t hell though either, it was a balance, something old yet new. 

As the first weeks of term settled in and the two classes she was teaching for the upperclassmen settled out, Caroline started to breathe a bit easier. Her research was going smoothly and since she’d actually lived through most of the linguistic changes she was writing about, it made finding material easier. 

While she wasn’t scared persay, she was aware that she’d caught the sights of someone. The scent wasn’t familiar, but then living in a new city made that not the weird part. The odd part was she couldn’t get a lock on it. It was always shifting, sometimes it smelled like a vampire old and dangerous. Other times it smelled like a pine trees and wet stone. The only constant was that it was following her. Caroline would catch it just when the wind shifted and then it would vanish.

The first time she’d almost caught them, but they’d flashed away just slightly faster than she. Then the news of the murders had broken and people panicked. Caroline had been forced to compel herself blood from a blood bank in London. Which also meant she had to compel herself a car. It would have been fine except when she came back there was a cooler on her kitchen counter, filled with O+ and a note which simply said  _ Sorry for the inconvenience _ . 

So she started feeling paranoid. There was an older vampire running around Oxford. There was also Kat freaking out about some big bad brother of her husband, who had caught her. When she asked for a more detailed description of Klaus Mikaelson, Katherine had talked of glowing gold eyes, and long sandy blonde hair. Holding hundreds hostage with a look. Nothing particularly helpful.

Then again Kat wasn’t known for being helpful she was known for being a survivor, epic shag (Kat’s words), and secret keeper. So Caroline had shelved it and focused on her work. If this odd scented creature wanted to talk to her, it clearly had her address. All she could do was the work in front of her. 

Then the flowers came. Someone had clearly noticed that she bought a bouquet of Black-Eyed Susans and sunflowers from the Garden of Oxford flower shop for her office desk every Monday morning. There on her desk on Friday October 11th, 2019 sat a bouquet of flowers that she had absolutely not purchased. 

Caroline was lost. She shared her office with an older gentleman named Lineal McMasters, but didn’t see him leaving her flowers much less this combination. It had white and pink camellias, red carnations, white heather, sprigs of ivy which altogether looked very beautiful. What stood out was the single Black-eyed Susan that sat dead center. She didn’t know anyone who would have sent her these. 

Brow furrowed, she picked up the vase turning it around in her hands. Nestled in the flowers was a small note card. In gold filigree was a simple message coupled with a scent of copper. Blood. Turning the note card over was a smear of it, the most delicious scented blood she’d smelled in years. As her monster surged forward Caroline swiped the back against her tongue. Barely holding in a moan she leaned against her desk and pulled the card away from her lips. The blood replaced with her coral lipstick. Flipping the card over, it simply read  _ Take a Chance.  _

Four Immortal Queers (GroupChat)

 

**Carebear: <SMS photo attached> Someone who speaks flowers tell me what this means.**

**Bambi: Who sent it? Some of those have different meanings**

**TDH: Longing, admiration, and crushing on you. The BES is weird that mean justice for the most part.**

**KitKat: You’re getting cryptic bouquets? Are you sure you haven’t run into Klaus?**

**Carebear: Weird, you don’t think it could be that art professor I met at the faculty mixer in August? I like BES Enzo, which you’d know if you ever brought me flowers :(**

**Carebear: Kat if an all powerful immortal wants to talk to me, I don’t think they’d go beating around the bush.**

**KitKat: You’re taking vervain every morning like I trained you?**

**Bambi: Gods you’re paranoid Kat, aren’t you married to Klaus’ brother?**

**TDH: Oh now the BES are kind of cute in the center, they represent you.**

**KitKat: How did any woman think you were straight in the 1880s?**

**TDH: Because I knew and still know how to work my tongue :P**

**Bambi: Gross ew go back to fucking your blonde in Greece**

**Carebear: You’ve REPLACED ME?**

**TDH: You won’t let me visit! I had to find solace somewhere else, you broke my heart.**

**Carebear: Wanker. Replacing me with another blonde.**

**KitKat: Yes Elijah is Klaus’ brother but they haven’t been speaking since our wedding in 1869.**

**Carebear: Ahhh to be old and in love. What’s it like marrying the brother of the man who had you on the run for roughly 450 years?**

**KitKat: Glorious, the things he can do with that dick are delightful.**

**Bambi: I think I’d actually like to stake myself now.**

**Carebear: <Gif of vomiting> You suck**

**KitKat: Yes often.**

**TDH: A woman after my own heart!**

**_KitKat has changed Carebear to Prude_ **

**_Carebear has changed KitKat to Loiterslack_ **

**Loiterslack: Did you just call me lazy in 17th century slang?**

**Prude: Yes. Yes I did. All that shagging has dulled your senses.**

**Bambi: God you need to get laid Care. When was your last romp? 1899? With that Salvatore?**

**TDH: <Gif of vomiting> No it was that werewolf in 1934. **

**_Bambi has changed Loiterslack to KitKat and Prude to Carebear_ **

**KitKat: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Princess Beatrice in 1877 when she visited New York.**

**Carebear: Alright! It’s been awhile.**

**KitKat: That art professor who wanted your number could break your celibacy record for you.**

**_TDH has changed the group chat name to Get Care Laid 2019._ **

**Carebear: You three are monsters.**

**KitKat: Yes and so are you. Don’t forget it.**

 

“Hello luv,” Dr. Mikaels voice broke through her giggling as he opened her office door. Dr McMasters must have closed it after he jogged in to grab a file. Straightening up from her relaxed position against her desk she raised an eyebrow. There was that odd smell of wet dog mixed with old parchment. 

“Luv seems a tad informal considering we aren’t friends. I never texted you and the Art Faculty department is an awful long ways from my office for a casual pop in,” she snapped, hands on her hips as she faced him. 

“Apologies, Caroline. You’re right. I don’t have a good excuse to pop in, other than in the last month that you’ve refused to initiate contact I have thought of nothing but you,” Klaus said, closing the door behind him. “You’ve permeated my deepest thoughts. I just wanted to stop by and ask you to drinks.”

“You want drinks?” she asked, her hips hitting her desk as she took a step back. For all his attractiveness, something still roused her monster. Prowling just behind her eyes, wary of a danger she couldn’t fully ascertain. Looking for the first sign of trouble. 

“A moment of your time, a chance to learn more about you. Your hopes, your dreams, aspirations, and fears,” he said, smirking as placed the desk between him and her. The predator in him was glad she couldn’t disappear. 

“Okay. Dr. Mikaels if you’re adamant on this, then I will see you for drinks tonight at eight at the Turf Tavern,” Caroline said, looking at him not quite holding her breath. She knew that he was waiting for her to do something, she just wasn’t sure what. When he smiled, actually honestly smiled not smirked at her answer, she started to calm down. 

“I shall see you there. If we’re going to have drinks though I think it only fair you call me Nik. In the meantime I hope the flowers will do,” he replied, darting forward to kiss her cheek before walking out of her office as though he’d simply popped in to ask about her course schedule. 

As she stood there stunned, her fingers brushing the spot where his lips had passed over her cheek, his words rang through her head.  _ Flowers will do _ . Oh shite it was him. Running after him at a brisk pace, she rounded the corner outside the Anthropology offices and found the corridor empty. 

So Dr. Mikaels had sent the flowers. Did that mean the blood and card also came from him. Or had the older creature stalking her time here at Oxford simply hijacked an Art Professor’s bouquet? For first time in a while she found that her monster and self weren’t pulling in opposite directions. 

 

“Lexi if I didn’t think Enzo would mock or Kat would grumble I would have called them. But since you’re supposed to be the kind one I called you. So please take a break from being a vampire therapist to those who hate themselves and help me,” Caroline hissed, into her phone as she stood in front of her closet. She hadn’t been on a date in over a hundred years and for all their teasing she knew that she was the less adventurous of the four. Slamming her phone down onto her chair she groaned. She should have just turned Dr-Nik down. 

Dressing for a date was always stressful. At least in the 1840s, the options for dressing were limited to the dresses owned, and hands to help get into it. While she hadn’t been lacking when it came to sex, dates and relationships had been another matter entirely.

She had sex, that was easy, find an attractive person out in a bar or a restaurant alone or as a couple. Quick one night and a night cap of blood and she was set. No, the last proper date had been with another vampire that Katherine had set her up with while she handled her curse business. Something to get her out of the way. She’d been wearing petticoats and a corset that she was fairly positive she’d donated to the costume department at NYU. Anyway, she wasn’t sure what one wore on a drinks date with a possible older supernatural creature. 

She still wasn’t sure about that fact either, his skin was warm and his heart regularly beating.She frowned replaying his words and the way he’d looked at her like she was prey he hadn’t quite figured out. No, she decided he was a monster, but not like her. Picking up her glass of red wine she flicked through her dresses and tunics, nothing screaming drinks with the insanely attractive arts professor. Glancing down she saw a text from Lex on her lock screen. 

Kat and Lexi had amazing style if not completely different from her own. Caroline was comfortable wearing the clothes that her stylist sent her. Things that worked with her hair, eyes, and complection. She wasn’t fussy, nothing overly flashy or indulgent. Things that made sense for a young professional. That being said she wasn’t sure about the outfit that Lexi had told her to wear. Miniskirt, Leather jacket, faux corset, and her over the knee boots, honestly the list felt like a prank. 

Steeling herself she went with her gut. Almost three hundred years old and countless sexual partners, yet she still didn’t feel comfortable dressing herself for outings with potential partners. Maybe some things never changed no matter how many centuries passed. Shaking her head, she grabbed her clothes and sped through the process of making sure she looked presentable and put together. 

As she flashed into an alley off from the Tavern, she took a deep breath and turned her phone to silent. Off was too risky incase things went cross eyed, silent at least wasn’t rude. The fear of danger wasn’t as great for Caroline, but as a woman it still lingered in her head. Some thoughts and fears were ingrained no matter how invincible one felt in the day to day. 

Walking in she turned around looking for her date and bit her lip. She was right on time and he wasn’t in the bar. Maybe he’d changed his mind. As all the ‘what if’s’ spiraled through her head she steeled herself for rejection that she was so familiar with. Even after all this time Caroline Forbes still didn’t see herself the way that Lexi and Enzo said the world did. Ugly, shallow, and rude were her top three descriptors of herself and she worked endlessly to not feel like they were true. Maybe he’d gotten a better offer.

“There you are luv,” his hand warm against her back. Her monster rising at the touch before settling into an almost hum under her skin. Curious. 

“Here I am, I thought you’d decided it wasn’t worth the trouble,” she admitted, looking up and over her shoulder. Gazing up into his steel iris’ she offered him a soft smile. “Should we get a seat?”

“I already found a table, here allow me,” he offered, clearly hoping to steer her towards his preapproved destination. Allowing him to lead him over she took a few steps quickly to lose the feel of his hand at her back. Except that when the hand was gone she missed it. 

“I’m sorry if I worried you, I couldn’t spot you through the crowd, and a few of my more flirtatious students stopped by the table to say hello. I didn’t forget you,” Klaus found himself admitting, though he couldn’t fathom why. When her cheeks flushed pale pink and her lips pricked up though his wolf stirred happily. Like he’d done right, when he’d done so little baffled him. 

“I don’t do this,” Caroline fumbles waving her hand around absently, “whatever this is.” Which is true, since 1845 she’d gone on two outings with male vampires, never courted really, and had avoided the marriages her mother thought proper most of her mortal life. Love was elusive and rare. While she been loved by her parents it was always clear to her that they did not love each other. 

“Have drinks with rakishly handsome colleagues?” Klaus asked, smirking as he watched her settle into her seat. The blue of her top highlighting her eyes just enough. Honestly he’d noticed her right away in the doorway. Her gold hair shining around her like a halo. Nothing giving away to the monster within. “So glad you agreed to take a chance on me?

“Is that what this is?” She asked, watching him eyes sparkling. As he’d spoke she’d felt an inner calm settle. She was Caroline Mother-Fucking Forbes and no man certainly not a man who looked this good was going to bring up insecurities she had long tried to bury. She could do this. Drinks, what had she been scared of.  “ _ That  _ Dr. Mikaels remains to be seen.”

Klaus watched her demeanor shift. She still looked easily embarrassed, but her confidence from that night at the faculty mixer was back. Sitting across from him was a woman who knew what she wanted and was not afraid of a bit of blood to get it. “Are we really back to that Dr. Forbes?”

“Well seeing as we have neither drink nor a waitress, I’m wondering why you asked me here?” she teased, smiling at him as she flagged down a blonde waitress. As she neared Caroline sized up her date and while she wasn’t sure about intent she did have a fairly good guess about drink preference. “Take a chance on me in return?” 

“Of course luv,” Klaus replied, not taking his eyes off her to glance at the blonde who was standing just a tad too close to him. 

“Hi, I’ll have a glass of your house red,” she paused glancing back at Nik, “he’ll have a top shelf whisky on the rocks with soda on the side.” When his eyes widened slightly she knew she’d gotten it close if not dead on. As the waitress walked away Caroline felt more in control. 

“How did you guess?” he wanted to know, had she been stalking him in return. 

“It wasn’t that hard, posh accent, arts professor. You have money and you’re confident enough in your social position that you don’t worry about offending others,” she admitted, she’d tried to Google him. But, other than a brief bio and a collection of recent pieces in galleries across London. There had been very little on Nik Mikaels Doctorate of Fine Arts at Oxford University. 

“You think you’ve got me all figured out then don’t you,” he asked, growing annoyed that she seemed on such sure footing while everything she said rocked him. No one had ever pegged his outer layer so exact before.

“I think that drink preferences are easy enough to guess, I’m sure you have surprises hidden under that posh exterior,” Caroline admitted, she wasn’t half bad at this. Leaning in against the table, always mindful of her arms, never letting her elbows touch the table. “So any assumptions about me?”

“You’re from Virginia, a proper southern belle. Too smart for the small town you grew up in. Orphen, you see the world for what it is, and are used to being underestimated by your peers,” he said slowly, thinking about what he’d witnessed watching her from the shadows. 

“How’d you get orphen?” she asked, raising her eyebrow at him as she picked up her glass of wine to take a sip. 

“You carry yourself like a woman who has nothing holding her to her hometown or life there,” he said slowly, the bit of digging from his minions had unearthed that she had been born in a small town forty minutes west of Richmond called Mystic Falls, though he assumed it to be false. If she couldn’t tell he wasn’t human, she probably wouldn’t cop to being anything but human herself.

“Maybe I just don’t like my parents? Jumping to dead seems so morbid,” she said, swirling her glass watching him. Eyes tracking every tick and unconscious movement he made. Nik Mikaels was intense and while she felt at ease joking with him, the threat of danger hung over him a mantel of what lurked just out of sight. 

“Tell though, are they alive?” he asked, sipping his whisky, face relaxed though not settled. Her monster was so well hidden, he’d sliced his palm twice and she’d reacted not at all. To have such control was incredible. It only deepened his interest. 

“No you’re correct, they aren’t alive. Have you been googling me Nik?” she asked, her voice light and airy. Her monster had perked it’s head up, staring out through her eyes with her. It smelled blood, someone in this bar was bleeding and it was delicious. 

“I admit, that I may have taken a cursory glance at your bio on the University of Richmond website,” he said, as his nail sliced his wrist careful not to flinch. When she glanced around the bar, watching other guest he dropped a few drops into her wine.  

The smell was back; which meant that beautiful tasting blood was close at hand. Turning back she raised an eyebrow as he shifted in his seat, gaze focused on her. Before looking at her drink. The wine was darker, the scent altered. Moving the glass to the side, she flagged a different waitress and placed it on their tray. Saying she thought it looked different, and if she could get a dry gin martini neat. Someone was getting tricksey. 

“So Dr. Mikaels, what do you do for fun when you aren’t being an artist?” she asked, her attention focused back on him. 

“I am rather dull I’m afraid, I go to gallery openings, read, sketch, being an artist never stops,” he admitted, watching her watch him. Taking his whisky he took a long drink. “How about you, what does a linguistic anthropologist do for fun?”

“Travel, explore societies who’ve had little modern influence, eat a lot of food, cook, see my friends,” she admitted, feeling her cheeks color slightly. “I’m not that interesting I guess.” Sipping her martini she tried to hold onto her confidence and remember she was a badass and the only protege of Katherine Pierce. 

“Best place you’ve ever visited?” he asked, eyes alight at the notion of hearing where she’d been. 

“Oh easy a friend and I backpacked through the Amazon for three months,” Caroline said, her eyes lighting up as she remembered the months she and Lexi had backpacked and lived alone in the Amazon. She had allowed herself to be fully immersed in Lexi’s animal blood diet. They’d grown so much closer depending on each other, and they’d learned more about themselves in those three months than they’d ever thought possible. 

“You and a friend backpacked through the Amazon?” Klaus was impressed. He was proud of having been everywhere in the known world and here was a relatively young vampire who had ventured into the most dangerous part of the planet. 

“What like it’s hard?” Caroline asked, quoting Elle Woods, before laughing as Nik looked stunned. “We had guides and were careful as hell, but we are both country girls and being outdoors doesn’t phase us much. So we figured why not go on a trip we’ve both wanted to do.” Sipping her martini she smiled before glancing off at the groups of couples making a makeshift dance floor. 

“When was the last time you had a dance partner luv?” Klaus asked, curious as to what she’d meant earlier that she didn’t do this, drinks, much. 

“Not since I was in school,” she admitted, though not admitting which time. She hadn’t danced with a suitor since before her mother died in 1725. Then she’d allowed herself to be talked into parties in the 1840s. She hadn’t a desire to be courted then though. Her monster had been riding high and it had taken her a month to reign her in. 

“Come now, a beautiful woman like you? Haven’t been dancing in years?” Now Klaus was starting to wonder who was this reclusive blonde vampire who seemed to have immense control yet also so full of life. “Will you dance with me?” 

“You want to dance with me?” 

Curiosity filled her eyes and she felt herself giving in and taking his offered hand. That warm feeling spread through her as they walked onto the makeshift dance floor. Allowing him to lead if only slightly wasn’t a problem. This was also far less complicated than the waltz or allemande. As she wrapped her arms around his neck swaying to the beat of the melody. 

“You’re quite accomplished at this,” he said, twirling her around the floor. His hands resting her hips where her silk top met her jeans. Looking down into her eyes he was astonished how old and wise they looked. 

“Well I am classically trained,” she couldn’t help but admit. It was true, she’d always loved dancing and could still remember every lesson she’d ever had with as both a mortal and vampire. 

“You’re a classically trained dancer and an anthropologist. Aren’t you full of surprises,” he mused, dipping her gently as the tempo quickened. As they moved across the dance floor her joy was spread clear as day across her face. His thumb swiped across the brief exposure of skin under her top. When she looked up at him no malice or betrayal in her eyes. She trusted him to hold her, to bring her joy in this moment. He’d done that. 

“You are an amazing dancer yourself,” Caroline said, honestly he was the best dance partner she’d had in a long time. Outside of her instructors, his touch was different though. It was gentle like he was scared he’d hurt her. She hadn’t felt that cherished touch ever, no one had ever held her the way he held her now. 

“When the partner is as graceful as you, it’s easy to seem good at something,” Klaus said, as the song came to an end. Stepping back he smiled at her before bowing and kissing her hand. “Thank you for the dance.”

“I knew you were a prick, but I didn’t think you could be funny too,” she teased, turning her wrist to caress his face gently. “Walk me home?”

“It would be my honor to walk you home,” Klaus replied, shocked. She wanted to spend more time with him. No one who didn’t have ulterior motives ever wanted to spend time with him. This was a vastly new experience.

Caroline grinned and walked back to their table to collect her purse and jacket. Placing a fifty pound note on the table for the waitress she was proud of herself. She was living in the moment, and not in her books. Nik Mikaels was unlike any man she’d ever met. 

As they left the bar, her hands in her pockets she glanced up at him. Her inner monster had yet to settle, which was the only way she knew that someone dangerous was stalking her in the dark. Biting her lip she glanced around the dark streets of Oxford trying to figure out who was watching her. 

“You ever feel like someone’s watching your every move?” she asked, skipping ahead and spinning to the last beat of music from the pub as they got further away. Turning back to him walking backwards looking at him. 

“More than you could guess.” He mumbled, so softly that Caroline was sure she wasn’t supposed to hear it. If she’d been a human woman she wouldn’t have. When he looked at her again her monster rose something in his face called to it. Maybe it was the way the street light caused his eyes to look golden. 

“So where are you from Nik?” Caroline asked, looking at him eyes searching for a hint of something not right. 

“Somerset, my mother and father had a house there,” he lied. Elijah had a house there so close enough.

“Fancy neighborhood; private schools and great tutors I’m betting.”

“Very privileged,” he agreed, thinking of what his fake human life might have been like. 

“So how about you? How does a southern belle wind up in Oxford?” he was genuinely curious. 

“I applied for a research grant to use the books in the Bodleian to find the linguistic link between English as we know it in England and the changes it’s gone through in the former colonies. Why some colonies have a bigger gap than others,” she said looking all around the streets. 

“You scared to be walking alone with me?” he asked, sensing her nerves spiking, taking her hand he tucked it into her arm. 

“Of you no, you’ve been the perfect gentleman, I’ve just had this feeling since I moved into my house that someone’s been stalking me,” she admitted, feeling extra foolish for admitting it out loud. “You must think I’m paranoid.”

“Not at all luv, it’s perfectly normal to feel unease walking around in the dark,” he glanced down at her. Maybe he hadn’t been as subtle as he had thought. 

“Your flower combination was quite lovely by the way,” she said slowly, looking up at him through her eyelashes. 

“You liked them?” he asked, looking down at her eyebrow raised. He’d taken a gamble that she’d know the language of flowers which wasn’t taught much anymore. 

“Well you freaked me out not putting a name to it,” she admitted nudging him hard in the side. 

“I planned it so I’d spill they were from me  _ after _ convincing you to come to drinks with me,” he admitted feeling a bit foolish for not signing the card. 

“Right well I thought my stalker had gotten brazen,” she said shrugging before poking him in the chest. 

“Apologies love,” he admitted leaning down to kiss her cheek. “How will I acquit myself?”

“Hmmm breakfast tomorrow?” she asked, winking up at him trying not to giggle when he looked flummoxed. She stopped walking when he looked more and more confused. “Nik, I’m having a good time and figured that we could get breakfast in the morning. If you have plans or I misread this I’m sorry.”

“You want to have breakfast with me, tomorrow?” he said, slowly stopping to grab hold of her hands. He had thought drinks with her would satiate his curiosity and yet he only found himself wanting to know more. When she stopped looking eager, disappointment replacing it, he realized his mistake. “Of course I would love to have breakfast with you, most ladies don’t want a second date with me.”

“Why would they not? You’ve been a perfect gentleman. What do you normally end your dates with?” she asked looking up into his eyes searching for something he wasn’t telling her. 

“Oh I kill them of course,” he joked, his laughter not quite reaching his eyes. Maybe that joke was bit on the nose. 

“Speaking of murder, did you hear the police are no were near solving the double homicide from september?” she said, her voice low as she shuddered at the thought of two young people’s families never knowing what happened to them. 

“Does it bother you that much?” he asked, looking down at the blonde vampire whose empathy was still so high, even after all these years. 

“Well no one should wonder what happened to their loved ones, it’s a cruel way to go through life. Especially when the deaths are so violent,” she said, gazing down the well lit street her thoughts on a different alley 298 years ago when her parents hadn’t been as lucky. 

“I never thought of it like that,” he said slowly, what would she think of him when he revealed that it was him. He was the murderer, and her stalker. How does one go about breaking that news to someone as sweet and innocent as her. 

As they walked through the night time air of Oxford, pub music the soundtrack as they moved up into Old Marston towards her family home. They talked about casual things, what she liked most about Oxford. What were his favorite things to paint. As they moved further out of Oxford centre, Klaus was impressed by how far she lived from the college. Most researchers chose to live closer to the school. “So what made you choose a home so far from the school?”

“What do you mean it’s only a fourteen minute bike ride, which is mostly down hill, or flat track,” she said, smiling up at him as they neared her home. She was internally debating bringing him inside for a night cap. Steeling herself she decided to go for it. 

As they approached her gated courtyard, she turned her back to the gate. Looking up at him she reached her right hand out to cup his cheek. Her monster had never held any interest in any of her past daliences, yet as they stood in front of her family home. Her monster was fighting every ounce of control she had to rise fully to the surface. Closing her eyes she rested her head against his chest. Her monster was humming just under the surface. Glancing around discretely as she hugged him before stepping back. “I had a really good time tonight Nik.” 

“So did I luv, are you sure that you want to see me again?” he asked, she had withdrawn slightly and he wasn’t sure why. 

“I think that would be lovely. Meet for breakfast in town? Or you could-” she trailed off looking up at him. Her curls falling forward obscuring her face. He reached out and tucked them back behind her ear. 

“Or I could what luv?” he asked, leaning in so his breath tickled her ear. 

“If you wanted you could come in for a night cap,” she rasped, out stepping back and hitting her gate. 

“You want me to come in?” he grinned. Very much like the cat who caught the mouse and her monster struggled to prove him wrong. She was the cat always. 

“If you’d like too,” she grinned back, her cheeks flushing. His touch sent flutters through her skin and she didn’t want them to stop. 

“I think I should try something first,” he said, pulling away just slightly to hold wrap a hand around her neck as he looked down at her. “Would you let me kiss you Caroline?” 

She was at a loss for words. His touch was warm, and seductive, no man had ever asked permission for a kiss. They’d always been stolen hurried things. She nodded reaching out to cup his face in her hands. Before wrapping them around his neck in turn. As he leaned down she felt her monster purr in contentment. 

His lips were dry and warm. They nipped, and raked across hers, battling her for power in the kiss. Power she happily gave over to him, after her own monster purred at the thought of seeing what it would be like. As he pushed her up against the wooden gate his hands trailing her back made her groan. He still treated her like she was breakable, but that only made her monster purr louder in her head. It wanted to know how far he would try and bend her. Suddenly she was against the door of her house and she blinked. 

Had she flashed them into the door, _ or _ had he. She had almost allowed herself to forget her misgivings about the man holding her like she mattered more than air. Pulling away she struggled to settle her thoughts she pressed her hands against his chest to push him off. “St-op, how did we get over here?”

“I thought the door would be more comfortable than your rose covered gate,” he rasped, brows furrowed when she pulled away staring up at him confused. 

“You aren’t human?” 

“Are you luv?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as he used one hand to tuck an errant curl behind her ear. With the other he clasped her right hand. 

“No but I don’t like feeling like one of us has had decidedly more information than the other,” she snapped, struggling to pull away from him. His grip tightened as his eyes glowed yellow and his monster appeared. Helpless not to react she relinquished control. Her monster surging forward. Her eyes bled black and veins pulsed under her normally blue eyes. 

“So your controls finally snapped?” he asked, licking a fang as he watched her monster unleash. He was awed, it was just as powerful a sight as he’d thought it would be. One so tightly controlled releasing it. 

“Snapped no, I have excellent control,” she hissed, glaring up at him. “You should have just been honest Nik, it wouldn’t have affected my feelings. You wouldn’t be the first wolf I’ve slept with.” Stepping back towards her door she ripped her hand from his grasp. Glaring at him she reached behind her to open her door. Her eyes watching him warily, a wolf on the full moon could be a problem, but she could take him tonight, it was just barely waxing. 

“You still don’t know what I am?” he asked, almost endeared that she’d been a vampire and yet uncorrupted by the world they found themselves in. Stepping closer he reached out slowly to keep from frightening her. “My name is Niklaus Mikaelson and I’m a hybrid.”  
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Caroline groaned, her monster completely fading from her face. “You’re Mikaelson, well it makes sense since you dropped three letters from your first and two from your last name. God I am such a fool. Lexi is going to piss herself laughing.”

“Wait you do know of me?” now he was just perplexed. She didn’t know him, but knew of him.

“Well, I solved your curse of Kat in 1825, mind I haven’t met you until now...” she was rambling. 

“Petrova solved the curse and then bartered it to get back with my brother,” he said, slowly watching the blonde fidget before him. 

“Actually Kat’s great at surviving, but I’m great at puzzles,” she said, which was true. she had always liked problem solving and cryptology. 

“You solved it? A baby vampire barely over three hundred years old solved a 7 hundred year old riddle all by yourself?” he asked, stepping even closer. 

“Like it’s supposed to be hard? To be fair though it did take eighty years and a five hour conversation with Katherine about what she remembered overhearing about the curse and your family,” she said, opening her front door. “Could we continue this inside? I’d rather my neighbors not think me a slag who fucks men against her front door.”

“Of course luv, after you,” he said, biting back a grin as she stepped backwards into her home. Now he was impressed, Katerina Petrova had managed to hide a vampire of high intellect from the supernatural world. 

“So how did you and Ms. Petrova meet?” he asked, looking around the house as he stepped in. It was decorated in classic styles coupled with modern touches. 

As they walked down the hall towards he had to assume was a living area, a painting on the wall stopped him. Standing with two figures behind her was Caroline, dressed in an early 18th century gown. She looked so young and innocent, her smile serene and honest. 

Stopping he reached out to touch the glass covering the family portrait. What had happened to that lovely young woman to create the woman who was walking ahead of him now. He wanted to know. He had been curious before, but now he was frantic to understand. His wolf hadn’t settled once since they’d separated, it had even gotten excited when her internal monster lashed out at him. 

“We sat for that on my eighteenth birthday. Mother and Father were quite proud to have such an accomplished daughter,” she spoke up, breaking his reverie. Turning to her he offered a smile. In her hands were two glasses of wine.

“You look very happy,” he admitted, staring at her as though he was seeing her for the first time. 

“We had our moments; my parents often went months without acknowledging my presence in their lives. I was a mistake. They hadn’t wanted children, my father was too devoted to his studies and his lover. Mother was busy keeping house and pretending that she had no idea her husband was gay,” Caroline took a sip of wine and held out her hand to him. Offering him the other glass. 

“I’m sure they were grateful to have you,” he said quickly. 

“Oh they loved me, but they had their lives and it was a different time, nannies or servants were used to raise children,” Caroline said, taking a step back into her well lit kitchen, she squeezed half a blood bag into her glass of wine. 

“You never told me how you met Katerina Petrova,” he said softly, following her into a large modern yet still traditional kitchen. She was sitting at the table where a plate of cookies were set out. 

“She saved my life in 1730, I had only been in the new world for five years at that point. But my ability to read and write in five languages had scared the townspeople, of Mystic Falls. My knowledge of plants, and animals the lack of fear I had toward the wilderness had them branding me a witch.” Caroline frowned, her rage at long dead mortals still fresh. Shaking her head she cleared her throat.

“She was riding through and compelled the jailer to let her see me. I think she was looking for a quick snack, but I’m smart and brave. I didn’t beg nor cry. So she offered me a choice. Die there or become like her a monster, all I had to do was be willing to help her whenever she needed me,” she finished, looking at him from across the table. 

“They thought you were a witch?” he asked, those days seemed so far ago, yet it had only been a few centuries since man had last murdered someone for the crime of witchcraft. 

“They hung me for that thought. I wouldn’t let Kat ferret me away. I paid for their imagined crime and having drank Kat’s blood earlier that morning I rose a few hours later,” she shrugged, dying was easy. It had been wrestling control away from her emotions and the monster that was always just there lurking under her skin that had been hard.

“You refer to her as Kat, I assume that you two are close then?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as she described her death. So she had principles and morals, fascinating. 

“She’s my sire and my best friend, I wouldn’t be the woman or vampire I am without her. Katherine Pierce might be a survivor, but she’s also damn fucking loyal to those who are loyal to her,” Caroline giggled at that, Kat loved her reputation as a cruel and evil bitch. 

“You speak very highly of a woman who ruined my plans in the fourteen hundreds,” Klaus snarled, feeling annoyed that no one sided with him except his baby sister on how Katherine was a lying snake. 

“Well she did gather all the components and also allow you to create more hybrids if you want,” Caroline said, shrugging at his statement. “So maybe you were only slightly delayed a mere four centuries, what’s that to the oldest original in the world?”

“I was half a man because of her,” he shouted, jumping to his feet. Rage building in his chest. He threw her wine glass into the wall expecting a shatter, but it just clattered to the floor wine spilling everywhere. 

“No your mother bound your natural form because she was cruel and vindictive. Katherine did nothing you wouldn’t have applauded if it fouled someone else’s plans. But! Because she made you wait not even four hundred years and then gave you the key to not only breaking the curse, but making more in your image. All so that she could be free from running. So she’d have the chance to find out if your brother had truly loved her.” Caroline snapped, crossing her arms trying hard not to roll her eyes. When he still didn’t calm down she did roll her eyes. 

“What would you know about any of it, you’re just her pet riddle solver,” he sneered down at her. 

“I am the only vampire she has sired, that has been with her or had contact with her the entire time. She taught me everything I know from drinking vervain to prevent compulsion, to her darkest moments, to the spots on her body that make her purr,” she said, struggling not to rise to his bait. God this man was infuriating. 

“So you were her whore on top of it all?” he snarled, and suddenly pain was blooming across his cheek.

“No one calls me a whore! Especially not a thousand old man child with abandonment issues,” she snarled, pulling back to lick the blood from her nails, were they’d raked into his skin. 

Klaus was gobsmacked for the third time since meeting Caroline Forbes. No one had ever struck him in anger that wasn’t an attempted death blow. Even his siblings went for broken bones and snapped necks over punches and hits. She looked insulted that he was even still here. How had this night gone so horribly wrong. 

“You hit me..” he trailed off wiping the blood from his already healed cheek. 

“You were an ass,” she stated, glaring at him as she moved back over to her wine glass. “Also you made a mess of my lovely tiled flooring.” 

“I’m sorry, are you telling me you expect me to clean it up?” he asked, looking over to where the wine was pooling on the floor. 

“I assume you know how a mop and water work, hell there is a swiffer in the closet,” she said, sipping her wine looking less angry and more insulted. 

“I’m the original hybrid, the king of vampires, and you want me to mop up spilled wine?” he rephrased, and yet she didn’t even flinch or blink, just nodded along with him. 

“Exactly, and please hurry, wine gets so sticky and the weather is fluctuating enough I’ll get fruit flies,” she said, looking at her nails before back up at him. “Please clean up the wine you spilled because you were angry that I wasn’t born earlier to solve your stupid hybrid curse for you.” 

Klaus felt his face flushing as she called him out on his behavior. She wasn’t telling him it was beneath him. Just that she expected him to clean it up. Simple as that, hell she didn’t even seem to put out that he had yelled at her. Caroline Forbes was more impressive than he’d assumed. His wolf was grumbling at him for causing the current rift between them, but still happy as a clam to be in her presence. 

Caroline for her credit was fuming, but as she took a few breaths and the taste of his blood almost made her forget her worries, she sipped her wine, waiting for him to make up his mind. She wouldn’t be called a whore, or talked down to; after all she was Caroline Mother-Fucking Forbes. He’d get on her level or fuck off. Her monster though was purring at the taste of his blood. Like she hadn’t eaten in months it pushed against her control. 

Finally he walked over to the presented closet and grabbed what he could only assume was the swiffer and started cleaning the spilled wine. Caroline struggled not to laugh. Watching him was like watching a toddler try and do a chore for the first time. He was struggling to understand why it was just soaking up the wine. Standing she walked over to him and slowly reached over and pressed the spray button to release the cleaning solution. 

“You know you could stand to act just slightly less posh once in a while,” she teased, looking up at the hybrid who was getting the hand of ‘mopping’. 

“Is that what you’re showing me? How to be normal? He asked looking down at the blonde vampire who was smiling up at him like she had been thirty minutes ago. 

“In a way, but also I’m assuming that stalking presence I was noticing but couldn’t pinpoint was you,” she said, before stepping away to pick up his glass giving him the perfect view of her arse. 

“So were you born here?” he asked, clearing his throat and putting the swiffer away after the spill was tidied up. 

“Yep in 1708, my father was a professor of classics for the Oxford then,” she said, sitting on her counter looking at him. 

“And you are best friends with Katherine Pierce?” he reiterated, stepping closer to her. 

“Also Lorenzo St. John and Lexi Branson,” she added, shifting back a little on the counter so her shoulders hit the cupboards behind her. 

“You’re smart, and reclusive-” She opened her mouth to argue, but he shook his head continuing, “-I know this because I know Lexi and Lorenzo have run in circles parallel to my family for at least two centuries and yet not you. I’d have noticed you before,” he finished, walking even closer. Slowly deliberately so she could track his movements. 

“Well, okay maybe a little but I like my privacy, my studies, my lessons,” she grumbled crossing her arms. “No one tries to stake me or kill me among humans, I’m just a bubbly student or professor of anthropology or history. Also I travel a lot and meet so many new people through traveling, when everyone thinks I’m human they don’t concern themselves with me.”

Klaus started laughing, she looked adorable pouting there in her own home at the most dangerous monster in the world. Walking even closer he placed his hands on her knees looking down at her. She had stopped pouting, her attention on his hands. 

“I’m sorry, how can I acquit myself?” he asked, grinning down at her. He wanted to bring back that look of joy and bliss she’d been wearing earlier in the evening. 

“You know I’m too smart to be seduced by you right?” she said, looking up at him, eyebrow arched perfectly. She placed her right hand against his chest. 

“See but that’s what I like about you,” Klaus found himself admitting just to hear her laugh. 

“You are the literal enemy of my sire, and you want me to just forgive you?” she asked, crossing her arms. Trying to ignore the impulse to rip into his throat. Something about his blood sang to her, she had never wanted blood more. 

“I want you to take a chance on me,” he pressed sliding his hand up her leg to her waist. “I want you to form your own opinion of me, not just based on what Miss Petrova has told you.”

Caroline rolled her eyes trying not to flush as his hands wrapped around her waist, warmth spreading through her body. Closing them she counted to five, and then opened them again. Looking at him she bit her lip. 

“My first impression was lovely, though a bit pretentious, second was odd, third was also lovely. That temper though, I’m not a wallflower Klaus, and I’m not your siblings who can survive anything but a white oak stake,” she waved him off when he balked. “Elijah talks, and Kat shares. Anyway my point is, we’re no good. I’ll disagree or be just too independent, you’ll rage, and eventually I’ll die.”   
Klaus was stunned, she could foresee every twist and turn they might take, she was so sure in their individual personalities, that she couldn’t see them working. Yet for all the reasons she’d just listed he just wanted her more. Yes he had a temper, but she hadn’t so much as flinched when he’d unleashed it earlier, in fact she’d let him shout and scream. Up until he’d called her a whore, then she snapped. 

“What if for all the reasons that you just listed, I think we’ll work,” he said, his voice low as he looked down at the vampiress sitting between his legs on her kitchen counter. His hands around her waist. Stroking soft gentle patterns along her skin. 

“How?” she asked, eyes wide and curious, wondering what he saw that she didn’t.

“You don’t let me get away with my anger, you call me on it. You hold me accountable for what I just did while angry,” he said, his pointer finger running up and down her spine. “You told me exactly why you were pissed at what I’d done.” 

“So you think we’ll work because for a minute display of anger you liked how I wasn’t cowed by it?” she asked pushing slightly on his chest, the heat from him radiating towards her. 

“I think we’ll work because you’re too smart to be seduced by me and I want to spend my life trying to prove to you that I can seduce you,” he said, leaning into her, his breath warm on her cheek. 

She pushed him hard then, “Seriously? You’ve known me a month and change, what do you know about me. You’ll throw me away when your bored just like you’ve thrown hundreds of women before me away.”

“Now wait a minute, what kind of monster do you take me for,” he asked, anger rising. Now if he’d taken the time to identify why he was angry he would have come to notice that he was mad at her opinion of herself. Klaus though wasn’t used to understanding his rage just letting it control him. 

“I take you for a wanna be king whose parents never loved him and now he goes through people like they’re toys. I’ve heard all about you,” she snarled, eyes flashing black before settling back to blue. 

“I AM KING,” he roared, his hand going through the marble next to her. Snapping out of it immediately he looked from the crumbling marble under his hand to her exhausted expression. 

“We’re not going to work Nik, you should go back to terrorizing the supernatural world. I’ll continue on teaching and studying languages,” she said flashing across the room to put some space between them. 

“Come on luv, take a chance. I’ll fix your countertop and hell I’ll even buy you a new home,” he said quickly before wincing when she went from exasperated to furious. 

“What’s wrong with the home that I’ve owned for two hundred and eighty years?” she said, hands on her hips. 

“Nothing, just you’re in a big house all alone, don’t you want someone to keep you company?” he asked, flashing to her side and wrapping her in his arms. “Give me a chance to prove you wrong and if you’re right I’ll leave and never come back.”

“Really you’ll just walk away if I say this isn’t working?” she asked, her right brow arched as she settled her hands on his chest. His heart beat steadily beating under her palm. 

“You’ll never see me again,” he assured her. 

“And you’ll be nicer to Kat?” she added, her eyes getting that familiar sparkle back in her eyes. 

“Don’t push it minx,” he chuckled, leaning down to kiss her again. Why had he let her distract him from this task. His hands slid under her shirt, tracing the lines of her spine and her hip bones, pulling her closer. 

Caroline relaxed into his embrace snaking her arms up and around his neck. Her fingertips tangling in his short hair. Moaning she finally ceded control of the kiss to him. His presence enveloping her. It was exhilarating his touch. Warmth spreading everywhere he touched. Never had any other partner’s kiss made her feel like she belonged there. 

No way was he going to make love to her in the kitchen. Taking a chance he sped them upstairs and into the first door off the hall, tossing her backwards onto the bed, he followed after her. Tucking strands of hair behind her ears he leaned down to press gentle kisses from her forehead back to her mouth. 

Caroline for her credit wasn’t one to be passive in bed. Sliding her hands down his back, she slipped them into his back pocket and pulled him against her. Biting his lip when he groaned at the contact to her hips. 

“Are you sure luv?” he asked, bracing himself on his elbows, looking into her eyes. 

“Tomorrow me might not be, but tonight I want to see where this goes,” she admitted her face flushing. 

“Kat you mean to tell me that after living for almost a century with his older brother, it still took you two months to find out that definitively that Klaus was in Oxford?” Enzo said, his phone braced on his shoulder as he gently massaged Bekah’s foot. They’d spent the weekend hiking and hunting. 

“Well to be fair, we don’t really talk about him at all,” Kat said, pouring a glass of wine out while her phone sat on the counter. Suddenly it started buzzing. Looking down she noticed it was Lexi. “Hold on I’m adding Lex to the call.” 

“Guys did I read Kat’s text right? Caroline is being stalked by Klaus Mikaelson?” Lexi asked, as the line picked up. Sitting in her home office painting her toenails. 

“Well maybe, or someone who thinks they’re connected,” Kat said, before sighing dramatically. “My poor baby is going to be eaten by my husband’s brother.”

“Oh fuck off Kat, Caroline is tougher than all of us combined,” Enzo laughed, as Rebekah looked over at him eyebrow raised. 

“Enzo’s right babe, Caroline had you to teach her to brawl, and then studied martial arts for the last century just to learn how the language of that culture had adapted within the larger language dialect ranges,” Lexi piped up, before laughing. “That being said, she’s the most unassuming predator ever.”

“So it’s agreed we’re descending on Oxford on Friday,” Kat asked, scrolling through flights to London just as Elijah walked in. “Want to come see your brother?” 

“Hi Elijah” Enzo and Lexi said in unison, startling the oldest Mikaelson as he wrapped his arms around his wife. 

“Are we all going to Oxford?” Elijah asked, pressing kisses to Katherine’s neck as his fingers trailed along her waist. 

“Bek’s want to come meet my sire? also Klaus will be there,” Enzo asked, putting his phone on speaker. When Bek’s eyes lit up he laughed. Bekah had expressed interest in learning more about her dashing English man, who better to have gossip than his sire. 

“Do I have to see Nik?” she asked, rolling her eyes. She still wasn’t happy with her older brother. Not after he’d left her staked in her Alex McQueen gown, the blood had been impossible to get out. 

“Come now Bekah, he’s family. I’m sure though that you don’t have see him if you truly don’t want too but it would be nice if we could have a family meal,” Elijah chastised pausing in his less than subtle ministrations on his wife. 

“Alright we’ll see you in Oxford on Friday.” Bekah conceded only after Enzo mouthed some rather naughty promises for being a great sport. 

“Kat I’m borrowing your private jet from JFK, last time I flew first class they tried to take my daylight ring at security,” Lexi announced knowing that with Kat and Elijah in Paris and Enzo in Italy it would be fine.

“Fine but you get blood on it, I’m taking it out of your hide,” Kat threatened, before hanging up. Turning to her husband she jumped in place as he picked her up. Wrapping her legs around his waist she kissed him before pulling back. 

“He won’t hurt her right?” eyes searching his face. She’d grown oddly attached to the obsessive compulsive blonde over the last three centuries. 

“My brother is not what I’m currently thinking about darling,” Elijah replied, using one arm to hold her to him and the other to unhook her halter top. “Not when you are looking good enough to eat standing here.”

 

Klaus woke up later than he thought he would, his arms wrapped around nothing. Opening his eyes fully he was met with an empty bed, and the sound of the shower running down the hall. Following it he was surprised by the sight he found. Instead of her naked glistening with water droplets, she was scrubbing the grout on the tile. Her hair pulled back in a high bun, and sweats. 

“What are you doing luv?” he asked, squatting down next to her careful to avoid her process. 

“Stress cleaning obviously, what else would I be doing?” she snapped, not looking at him as she scrubbed with the toothbrush. 

“Right but why are you stress cleaning? I thought we had a marvelous time the last week,” he pressed, leaning back against the doorframe looking at her. 

“So what if we did though?! It can’t last, we barely know each other and you hate my family. Plus you are going to get bored now, I’m not a chase anymore.” She stopped speaking to take a breath and glare at him. Tears in her eyes. 

“I dislike Katerina Petrova, I don’t hate her. Afterall I let her marry my brother,” he said, rubbing her back. “Luv, I want to spend the next year watching you drive the anthropology office mad here at Oxford. Nothing I’ve learned about you these last few days has satisfied my curiosity in the least.” 

She sniffled and rolled her eyes. What was with Nik and waxing poetic all the time, glancing at her wristwatch she groaned, time to get ready for her 1:05 lecture. Standing she handed him the toothbrush. “Since you haven’t replaced my broken countertop yet, you can finish cleaning this. I’m going to change.”

Klaus laughed and pulled her down quickly for a kiss. “If you’ll permit it, I’ll have the counter replaced today while we’re attending to our classes and lectures.”

“Oh good then you can make me dinner tonight,” she replied, pulling away to wink at him. She was very glad that he didn’t mind  talking her out of panic of the future. They were having fun the past week had been going so smoothly especially after that rather hectic weekend. 

“What would you like?” he called out to her, as he raced through the chore she’d handed off to him. He was teaching labs all week for his students to work on their midterm pieces working off of specific cultural influences of the last fifteen years. 

“Hmmm something Indian, haven’t had a good curry in forever,” she called back. It was still kind of surreal that he wanted her. Sure they’d argued, but he’d refused to lash out like he had Friday night. 

That being said he kept looking at her like he expected her to stab him in the back. She’d spent enough time with Kat to recognize the signs of someone so used to betrayal. Yet, not once had he made comments about loyalty or the future. All thoughts of what could come came from her. He just watched and waited, as though some part of him trusted her and the scars of others held him back. That being said he was amazing with his body, the things he could do with his tongue made her swoon just thinking about it.

“Thinking about me?” his voice in her ears made her flush. 

“More like the curry you’re going to make me,” she said, turning to kiss him as she pulled her jumper over her head. 

“How you wound me,” he groaned, stumbling backwards to fall on her bed, clutching his heart. 

“Countertop Klaus, I mean it,” she said, as she grabbed her portfolio and laptop from her desk. “See you tonight. 

 

“Thank you Jemma, I’ll look over your paper this weekend,” she said, waving goodbye to a student as she walked back towards her office. Suddenly her monster perked up, someone was following her. Steading her walk she eyed possible attack points, the alleys in Oxford had high walls and few windows which made attack from above harder to pull off. 

“To slow,” came a familiar voice right before someone smacked her arse hard. 

“Lexi Branson you little fuck,” she screeched jumping up and down as she looked at her best friend. Before hugging her tightly. “What are you doing here?” 

“Kat sent me to get you, said you had a little explaining to do,” Lexi said, swinging her arm over Caroline’s shoulders. 

“Why does-” Caroline broke off as the reality settled in around her. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes, so how long have you and the OH been doing the down and dirty?” Lexi asked, eyes sparkling her lips curling back in a grin.

“A week,” Care said, her face scorching hot. “Please tell me no one is dead.”

“Apparently Enzo got to the house first, and thought Klaus had broken in so he’s unconscious but alive, and Kat’s currently drinking your wine,” Lex listed off what she’d been told as Caroline looked at her. 

“Fuck me,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead she glanced around. 

“I would honest, but I would hate to get dead because your new boyfriend got possessive,” she giggled, when Caroline shoved her away. 

“Bitch,” Care snapped rubbing her forehead. 

“So everyone’s at my house?” she asked, looking at Lexi for clarification. When she nodded Caroline’s mood dropped even further. “Did you drive?” 

“Motorbike, want to drive back?” Lexi offered, sensing Caroline was getting pissed. 

“Actually I’ll race you there,” Care said, before disappearing from sight, leaving Lexi shaking her head. 

This was not what they’d expected when Elijah had confirmed that Klaus was teaching at Oxford. Kat had floated the idea of an impromptu trip to the UK to check on Care, and maybe deter Klaus from whatever he’d been plotting. So far, this trip hadn’t gone remotely to plan. 

Racing after her best friend she just lost as Caroline slipped into the kitchen to appear next to Enzo on her couch. Lex stood in the kitchen watching from the doorway eyeing Kat who was alone in the large space. 

“You killed three Originals that fast?” she asked, eyebrow raised. 

“Apparently Elijah felt a family meeting was necessary and no matter how long we’re married I’m not included,” Kat answered, handing her friend a gin martini. Lexi smiled in thanks. 

Caroline was furious, her family were the most meddlesome, thoughtful, hairbrained folks she could ask for. When tapping his cheek didn’t work she hauled back and decked him. As he came awake swinging she ducked only to came up within his arm span, to hug him tight. 

“Blondie why do you have to go around decking guys,” Enzo groaned, wrapping his arms around her in return. 

“Because it wakes you up faster,” she said, pulling away to kiss his cheek. “Good to see you Douchie.”

. “Aehmmm,” Kat coughed, signaling her own presence behind them. Caroline turned and raised an eyebrow at her sire. 

“Yes Kat, can I help you?” she asked, crossing her arms glaring at her sire. 

“A thank you would be great,” Kat said, eyes sparking as she planted a hand on her hip. “After all I did wrangle everyone to Oxford to check that you were okay.”

The anger and embarrassment that she’d felt diminished as she looked at her Sire. Kat had a point. If she’d found out that Lexi or Enzo was in such close proximity to an Original not Elijah, Caroline had to admit that she’d fly off right away to check they hadn’t been been turned to ash.

“I’m sorry Kat, I should have told you that I had met your enemy of old,” she admitted, looking a little sheepish. “To be fair your descriptions weren’t the best and he was going by Nik Mikaels. So I didn’t put two and two together.”

“Oh good you’re home, will you please tell your mother hen, that I didn’t compel you?” Klaus asked, appearing behind her and Enzo. 

“Seriously Nik!” Caroline huffed, smacking his chest lightly when he growled at Enzo standing so close. 

“What this rifraff is sleeping with my little sister,” he huffed in return, catching her hand and placing a gentle kiss to her knuckles. 

“Wait a minute, you two,” she said, pointing to Kat and Lexi, “knew that Enzo was fucking Rebekah Mikaelson, and didn’t tell me?!” 

“Yea pretty much,” Kat said, shrugging her shoulders looking back at her as Elijah and Rebekah walked into the room looking far to smug. 

“Yet you thought that I, who am a century older than him, needed rescuing from the big bad wolf,” she finished, glad Klaus was holding her to him. Otherwise she might have smacked them both. 

“Again yes,” Lexi answered, sipping her martini. “But! Seeing how you have him very well in hand, we can see we were mistaken.”

“Now that this is sorted,” Bekah interrupted their internal squabble. “Elijah’s decided that we should have a proper family dinner.”

“It will be the perfect way for the seven of us to get acquainted with one another,” Elijah said, his arm wrapped around Katherine’s waist. 

“Alright, but we’re dining out, this OH broke my counter,”  Caroline said, sticking her tongue out at Klaus who just shook his head. 

Lexi laughed and looked around the couples all matched up and nicely squared away. Chuckling to herself she took a sip of her martini, and looked to Enzo and Bekah. “Hey Bekah, you don’t happen to have a gorgeous sister laying around. It looks like I’m the odd duck out.”

“Unfortunately it’s just us and Kol,” Bekah said, making a face at Lexi’s comment.

Soon though alcohol and blood were flowing, and tensions seemed to mellow. Caroline drifted around the group talking to everyone and making sure no one was feeling uncomfortable as they waited for their dinner to arrive. Dinner with most of the Originals was an experience, one that she still wasn’t sure was real. 

 

Rolling over Caroline looked at Klaus as his chest rose and fell, she’d woken before to him sketching her. She’d admonished him for being a creepy Edward rip off and kissed his scowl away. Yet, as she pushed herself up onto her elbows to look at him, she couldn’t help the happy purr that escaped her lips. Everyone had left Sunday afternoon, citing various reasons why they had to jet off. As another week came to a close and he laid spread out on her bed, her heart throbbed for him.

The entirety of her being was content, monster and girl. The vampire in her kept struggling for control, trying hard to achieve something that Caroline couldn’t understand and as such had been tight lipped on that aspect of herself. He looked so peaceful and vulnerable as he laid there arm outstretched and necklaces against his clavicle. Gently she ran her fingers through his hair. 

“I seem to recall you telling me that watching people sleep is gross and creepy,” he murmured, his arm snaking around her waist. 

“You just looked less original hybrid and more unassuming art professor,” she admitted, shrugging as he pulled her on top of him. Placing her hands on either side of his head she leaned down to kiss him. “Are you sure you’re okay continuing to be that unassuming professor while I work on my research paper?” 

“If it means that we spend more Saturday mornings before you disappear into your office like this then yes,” he said, sitting up to nip at her neck, placing kisses up and down the slope of her neck. 

Her vampire senses were stretching and tugging as his neck was barred to her. Her eyes flooding black as her control snapped. Biting down on his neck she moaned as he did, it was that ambrosia blood from the floor two weeks ago.

“If you wanted my blood luv, you just had to ask.” He said, chuckling as he cradled her head to his neck. He’d tensed at first but both his vampiric instincts and the wolf within and radiated happiness as she pulled his blood from him. 

Suddenly his wolf was running the show and he felt his fangs descend. “Caroline would you let me return the favor?” 

“Of course,” she whispered, her voice raspy and low as she lapped at the wound she’d created. His bite stung and then warmth flooded her system. That golden warmth that she felt every time he touched her raced through her veins as he pulled her blood. 

Klaus had never tasted blood that tasted as good as Caroline’s, it was like the most refined wine he’d ever had the pleasure to taste. His wolf howled in his head as his eyes glowed a steady gold. Pulling back he kissed her deeply their bloods mingling in their mouths, as they fought for possession of the kiss. When she gave in her fingers sinking into his hair he groaned. “So lovely. So so lovely.” 

“You taste like nothing I’ve ever had before,” she whispered an hour later, her fingers tracing patterns on his chest. 

“I was going to say the same about you luv,” he admitted, tangling his fingers with hers, his other hand running through her hair. “You make me very content Caroline. I’m excited to see where the next centuries will take us.”

“You’re really so sure that we’ll make it?” she asked, looking up at him eyes wide as she searched for any hint of doubt in his eyes. 

“I am. Caroline Forbes you’ve bewitched me body and soul. I intend to see where this new world you’ve opened my eyes too will take me,” he said, leaning down to kiss her deeply, cupping her face in their joined hands. 

She blushed as she pulled away and nestled her head against his neck, closing her eyes. While they’d equally replaced any blood they’d shared, it had still taken a lot out of her. As they laid there in her bed, in her family home, Caroline finally felt whole. She didn’t feel insecure, or shallow. Nor did she feel worthless and pathetic. When he held her she felt loved. 

“I’m excited to see where this chance takes us,” she admitted, after a moment of stillness. 

“Don’t panic love, but I want you to know that I intend to be your last love. How ever long it takes,” he said, stroking her hair. The morning sun was almost fully in the sky at this point, she’d be getting up at any second to put in a day’s worth of work into her paper. 

“Who’s your competition?” she mumbled, rubbing her nose against his neck. 

“Time, and the fear in your eyes,” he answered, though he would never really know for centuries to come if she had heard him for Caroline Forbes had fallen asleep again. 

  
  


_ The End.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Remember Comments make my soul happy and healthy. Please leave them.


End file.
